Live Like You Were Dying: A Story About Living [Hardcover]

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Item description for Live Like You Were Dying: A Story About Living by Michael Morris...

OverviewA construction supervisor in Atlanta, Georgia, Nathan Bishop has worked hard to become a personal, professional, and financial success-to the detriment of his family and friends. His wife Heather and twelve-year-old daughter Malley rarely see him, and his family back home in southern Georgia barely knows him anymore. That is, until an accident on the job and subsequent hospital stay reveal a growth on his lungs. Faced with the possibility of losing everything, Nathan begins to rebuild long-neglected relationships, starting with his wife and daughter, and ultimately takes a life-affirming journey with his father. Along the way, he rides on a bull named Fu Manchu, goes skydiving and Rocky Mountain climbing, grants forgiveness he'd been denying, and reconnects with the good book. Nathan realizes that he wants to spend time living and loving to the fullest-and in the end, that is his legacy.Readers of fiction and inspirational books, as well as country music fans and others touched by the hit song, will want to own this poignant book. Like Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie and Donna VanLiere's Christmas Shoes, the novella prompts readers to make the most of every moment in life.

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More About Michael Morris

Michael Morris and Dick Pirozzolo have more than fifty years of combined experience working in and around the home-building industry, much of it in timberframe construction. Morris has written for "Field & Stream, Popular Science," and "Builder." Pirozzolo has written for "Timberframe Illustrated "and" Country's Best Log Homes." They are also the coauthors of "The Timberframe Plan Book." They live in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

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Reviews - What do customers think about Live Like You Were Dying: A Story About Living?

Not What I Expected...It Was Better May 24, 2006

I read Michael Morris's other novels and loved them. The stories are realistic and the characters well drawn. When I picked up this book I was not so sure that it would be as strong. The fact that it is based on a song made me think that it would be too melodramatic. I was wrong. While the story is sweet, the characters are well drawn and the message behind the story made me stop and think about my own life choices.

A BOOK FOR THE SEASON.... Dec 14, 2005

THIS BOOK SEEMED TO BE THE PERFECT STORY TO READ DURING THIS TIME OF THE YEAR. IT REMINDED ME OF AN UPDATED 'IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE'. A MAN WHO FACES DEATH MUST THEN FACE THE FATHER HE HAS ALWAYS DISTANCED HIMSELF FROM. THE BOOK IS VERY MUCH LIKE THE FAMOUS SONG BUT IT PROVIDES MORE BACKGROUND INTO THE MAN'S THOUGHTS AND THE PEOPLE THAT HE PUSHES AWAY UNTIL ITS ALMOST TOO LATE. THIS IS A FEEL-GOOD BOOK THAT PULLS AT YOUR HEART!

Live Like you were Dying: A Story about Living Aug 5, 2005

I loved this book! It was so good! The book was just as powerful as the song. It makes you realize what you have and you should not take advantage of it.

A grave medical diagnosis, the ensuing quest for adventure, mended relationships, and a reconnection with God Aug 3, 2005

Michael Morris is a name well-known to fans of Christian fiction, particularly novels that cross over well into mainstream bookstores. His 2003 release, SLOW WAY HOME, was named one of the best novels of the year by two secular newspapers in U.S. cities. LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING, a 178-page novella, may well receive similar accolades for the year 2004.

As country music fans might suspect, the book is based on the lyrics from a Tim McGraw hit of the same title, written by Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman. Morris took the lyrics and fashioned a story that seamlessly integrates all the elements of the song --- a grave medical diagnosis, the ensuing quest for adventure, mended relationships, and a reconnection with God.

In Morris's version, Nathan Bishop cheats death in an industrial accident, only to have the resulting x-rays reveal a much more serious problem. Weighing his medical options, Nathan decides it's time that he starts to live as if he were dying. That means, in part, doing risky things he's never done before, like skydiving and riding a bull, both of which are activities mentioned in the lyrics. That also means doing things he never took the time to do, like spending time with his wife and 12-year-old daughter. And finally, it means doing things he never wanted to do, like forgiving his father.

I have to confess that I was fully prepared to dislike this book. I figured that not even Morris could avoid producing a book that seemed contrived, since the content would be forced to fit the lyrics --- and the lyrics of a country song at that. But Morris proved he was more than equal to the task. Nothing about this book felt forced or inauthentic, and there's none of the "fluff" that I anticipated in a book of this type.

Among the many strengths: Morris's excellent command of the language, realistic dialogue (one of the aspects of quality fiction that too many authors fail to produce), and believable characters. In that last category, two of the standouts are Nathan's father and grandmother, two people who easily could have become stereotypes in the hands of a lesser author. Ron Bishop is reserved and remote, the kind of father who has never been able to show his affection. But Morris avoids casting him in a predictable light or overdoing it with a lot of commentary on why he is the way he is. Ron Bishop just is. And that makes him believable.

Grand Vestal, Nathan's grandmother, gets my unofficial award for "best portrayal of an elderly woman." If, like me, you've noticed that elderly women in Christian fiction are nothing at all like many of the elderly women in your life, you'll be glad to meet Grand Vestal. Morris apparently recognized the fact that older women are, well, not your father's grandmother. They aren't necessarily the sweet, simpering, saccharine women who call everyone "dearie" in too many other Christian novels, nor are they necessarily feisty, oddball characters that exist somewhere else along the caricature spectrum. They're real, multidimensional people --- just like everyone else. Amazing that so few writers seem to realize that. Thankfully, Morris does.

My first time through this book, before I knew I would be reviewing it, I made a note to myself on the end flap: "Excellent in every way." That assessment still stands.

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR...Michael Morris May 12, 2005

I met Michael Morris at a writers conference in 1999 way before he had any books out. He looked like a young John Grisham, working in a job where he interacted with Washington D.C officials. 'But, what I really want to do...' he said, with his head bowed, as if he were suddenly shy 'is write'. I looked at him and thought, 'Who doesn't, you're one of a million'. Two days later, after Michael and his wife returned to their home in the deep south, I picked up his new manuscript and began to read...and was stunned...this guy was gifted! I called my agent and said, 'You have got to sign this guy, this book is a winner.' She did. And that book, A PLACE CALLED WIREGRASS went on to win the Christy Award (like an Emmy ...for writing). Michel and his family remained friends with my family and while I was working on my forth book FLYING BY THE SEAT OF MY PANTS: Flight Attendant Adventures on a Wing and a Prayer, he was working on his next novel. Then he called one day and said 'There is this song on the radio you have to listen too...it's called LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING and it's my story.' I said, 'That's great Michael, maybe you should call Tim McGraw and tell him that. Ha Ha Ha.' (I was joking because no one we knew...knew how to contact Tim McGraw') A few days later, Michael called and sounded in shock, 'I didn't have to call Tim McGraw,' he said, 'his people contacted me. Marsha, It's like it was meant to be.' LIKE YOU WERE DYING is a true story, not just for the father of Tim McGraw..but for Michael Morris as well...maybe that's why it's ringing in the hearts of so many people. And now, as this his third book sells around the world - and he is writing his forth, I don't think Michael Morris is one OF a million, but, one IN a million.

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